In verses 24 and 25, Jesus talks about "wise" and "rock" and "did not fall." In verses 26 and 27, he talks about the opposite -- "foolish," "sand," and "great was its fall." The temptation is to ask: "Which are you -- wise or foolish -- when it comes to "these words of [Jesus']?"

That's a good question, of course, but I have a friend who likes to remind me that maybe the deepest point of this story is that rain falls both on the wise and foolish. Hard times will come whether we're wise or rebellious, righteous or tainted, faith-filled or blasphemous. (For example, Jesus was wise, righteous, and faith-filled and still got nailed to a cross.)

The rain will come. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:45, "he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."

Well ... the rain came on our mission trip. One of our teams was putting on a roof. They had the whole roof off when disaster started rumbling in the background. Thunder, lightning, rain, and a promised soaking of the inside of the house. They prayed harder. They worked faster. And the rain didn't come ...

... that afternoon. It came that night. High winds blew off a piece of the tarp and the ceilings and drywall inside a corner of the house were saturated. Now, it wasn't the big disaster that it could have been the previous afternoon. But it was enough to alter plans and necessitate additional prayers.

The rain will come. And life is how we handle the rain and the sun. Some handle rain poorly with excuses and complaining, pouting and blame. Others handle sun poorly -- taking pride in their own accomplishments rather than being thankful for God's grace. Still others rise to the occasion in the midst of life's trials and use their hours in the sun to be a blessing to others.

Who are you in this tapestry of life?

In Christ's Love,

a guy who's learning

to sing in the rain

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I think I know who I am and it is not who I want to be. But I am still on the journey - n the midst of the storm.